There quickly develops tension between Jack and Ray as Ray strongly feels Jack will be a burden and will do better in a nursing home. However, Denise's kids from the previous marriage, THOMAS and LIZ, want Grand Pop to stay and so he does, living in Ray's big house on The Main Line, a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia.
Denise has never felt she fits in with all this area's old-money and pretense and, although Ray is from wealth, he is also a real,old bastard - and so is his mother, the blue-blood, mold from whence he came Eleanor.
Unfortunately, Denise, being newly in love, doesn't see any true colors, but everyone else does, especially Jack. Soon tension erupts into conflict between Jack and Ray. Ray steps up his campaign to convince Denise that Jack belongs in that nursing home and Jack tries to convince Denise that she needs another divorce.
Nevertheless, what Ray really needs is Jack out of the way, because he's afraid Denise will
eventually listen to him and spoil his plans. But challenging Ray is the fact that Denise
loves her Dad, Jack, very much, so a covert feud (which forms the backbone of the
picture) develops between the two, mostly oblivious to Denise who is preoccupied
with adjusting to her new upper-crust "life."
Denise is also preoccupied with turmoil in her Old Neighborhood as she is active
in soliciting the township zoning powers, including the Township Supervisors, to stop a greedy
developer who wants to raze the neighborhood and build an expensive housing development.
She is getting considerable resistance from, not only the Supervisors, but corrupt,
greedy members on the Planning Board who are covertly tied-in to the land
development deal.
To step-up progress on the home-front feud, Jack enlists the aid of Thomas and Liz,
who gets her delinquent boyfriend, BOBBY, and his suburban "gang" of dead-beat friends
(all would-be stand-up comics). Jack even gets his World War II buddies, Nate and Sam from the Old Neighborhood in on the act. But Ray brings in the heavy artillery by enlisting his mother, Eleanor, who is no stranger to beating back (or burning and shreading) the
bushes when needed.
Ray tells Denise over and over that The Main Line is her home now: she should forget
her Old Neighborhood and its problems. Jack, who spent much time in that old neighborhood
raising Denise, offers any (and more than enough) assistance (than) he can (or should).
Eventually it comes out that Ray has used a "straw buyer" to gain possession of
strategic tracts of land in the Old Neighborhood and is, in fact, the covert developer behind the
turmoil.
With Jack's help, Denise and her old neighbors work to finally defeat Ray (and his mother) - and the sniveling Planning Board's - evil plans. Denise then gets an annulment and moves back into
the Old Neighborhood where the entire family feels once again truly at home.
DIRECTOR:
SCORE:
SCREENPLAY:
CONSULTANTS:
PROPOSED LOCATION:
PREMISE:
Tenatively entitled THE WIT-NITS, the picture is basically it's a MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD meets COCOON with a touch of Jim Carrey stirred in.
SYNOPSIS:
JACK WIT, a retired marine-captain-turned-Grand Pop, after his wife's death, is invited to move in with his daughter, DENISE NIT, and her brand-new, second husband, RAY NIT.
PRODUCTION COMPANY:
Matrixx Productions
223 W. Lancaster Ave.
Devon, PA 19333
PRODUCER UNIT:
James Jaeger, Barbara Bigford (provisional) - Producers
Bill Van Alen, Jr. - Executive Producer
Andrew S. Cofrin - Executive Producer
CAST:
Mickey Rooney - Jack Wit
Shelly Winters - Elanor Nit (provisional)
Twink Caplan - Denise Wit-Nit
Jeffrey Jones - Ray Nit
Barbara Bigford (provisional)
Alexander Contract - Nate
Stamen Cartly
Linda Swain (provisional)
Based on a story by James Jaeger & Chris Mancini
The screenplay is available to authorized Readers. To apply to become a Reader click here.
Mickey Rooney
Main Line, Philadelphia Area
| Bookstore | Professional Services | Useful Information |
| Memos | In-Development | Script Submissions |
| Script Reading | BackBone Enterprises | Website Development |
| Film Distribution | Discussion Den | Contact MEC |
| Lee Garmes Cinema Institute |
